Eintracht Frankfurt take on Freiburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday, with the visitors needing to win to have any chance of qualifying for Europe next season.
Frankfurt, meanwhile, will compete in the Europa League next season after their Champions League hopes were ended last weekend.
Match preview
© Reuters
It has been a disappointing end to the season for Frankfurt, whose form has deteriorated since their manager Adi Hutter revealed that he will be leaving the club to replace Marco Rose at Borussia Monchengladbach in the summer.
After beating Champions League qualification rivals Borussia Dortmund 2-1 on April 3, Frankfurt looked near certainties to qualify for Europe's elite competition for the first time in the club's history.
However, a combination of BVB winning six league games in a row and Frankfurt losing three of their last five has meant that they will instead have to settle for Europa League football next season.
Last weekend's 4-3 defeat to already-relegated Schalke 04 was a particularly disappointing result given that a win would have kept them in the hunt heading into the final day against Freiburg. Instead, it is essentially a dead rubber for them, with Hutter hoping to depart the club on a high after a successful three-year spell.
© Reuters
Freiburg, meanwhile, head to Frankfurt sitting outside of the top half despite earning a credible point from their 2-2 draw with champions Bayern Munich last weekend.
Manuel Gulde and Christian Gunter, who has been one of the Bundesliga's finest left-backs this season and has deservedly earned a spot in Germany's Euro 2020 squad as a result, pegged Bayern back on two occasions to keep their hopes of qualifying for Europe alive.
Christian Streich's side are two points behind Union Berlin, who currently occupy the inaugural Europa Conference League position, so they must beat Frankfurt to have any chance of leapfrogging the three sides above them in the table and assume that position.
As such, Streich is likely to employ an attacking gameplan on Saturday, which could create a highly entertaining match.
- W
- L
- W
- L
- D
- L
- L
- W
- D
- L
- W
- D
Team News
© Reuters
Frankfurt are likely to be without Djibril Sow due to a knock, so Stefan Ilsanker could come into the centre of midfield in his place.
Andre Silva will have the chance to extend his incredible goalscoring tally after bagging 27 league goals this season, with Luka Jovic probably having to settle for a place on the bench.
Jabez Makanda remains out due to a broken ankle.
Freiburg, meanwhile, will be without the suspended Roland Sallai after the Hungary winger picked up his fifth caution of the season.
Jonathan Schmid should slot into the right of midfield in Sallai's place, while Lucas Holer will hope to replace Nils Petersen in attack.
Eintracht Frankfurt possible starting lineup:
Trapp; Tuta, Hinteregger, N'Dicka; Chandler, Ilsanker, Hasebe, Kostic; Kamada, Younes; Silva
Freiburg possible starting lineup:
Flekken; Kubler, Lienhart, Gulde, Gunter; Schmid, Hofler, Santamaria, Grifo; Demirovic, Holer
We say: Eintracht Frankfurt 2-2 Freiburg
We can envisage a highly entertaining encounter in Frankfurt on Saturday between two sides who are likely to adopt attacking mindsets.
Freiburg must win to have a chance of qualifying for Europe, but Frankfurt are unlikely to want to let Hutter down in his last game in charge and have nothing to lose.
Top tip
Brett Curtis
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Eintracht Frankfurt win with a probability of 53.85%. A win for Freiburg had a probability of 23.74% and a draw had a probability of 22.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Eintracht Frankfurt win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.78%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.71%) and 2-0 (8.24%). The likeliest Freiburg win was 1-2 (6.13%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.33%). The actual scoreline of 3-1 was predicted with a 6.2% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Eintracht Frankfurt would win this match.
